Federal jury sides with Fort Collins in its utility billing software dispute

DENVER — Fort Collins, which filed a lawsuit back in 2021 against a fledgling Florida utility billing solutions company, has won its lawsuit. All that remains is to determine damages.

As previously reported, the city and software company Open International LLC and Open Investments LLC disagreed over who was at fault for the inability to bring utility billing services online in a timely manner and without additional cost. Fort Collins alleged that Open misled the city about its abilities; the company’s experience was largely in Central and South America and not in the U.S. Open International contended that Fort Collins’ failed to apply sufficient resources to the project and that management disruption also was a factor. The jury determined that the city was misled.

On Friday, a Denver federal jury after a 10-day trial found that Open International and Open Investments fraudulently induced the city to enter a contract for Open to provide the city with Open’s customer information system product to provide broadband and utility billing and other services to the city.

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At the time of the lawsuit filing, the city had committed about $10 million to the project.

“The city of Fort Collins is pleased with the jury’s decision that backed up our claim that Open International and Open Investments had fraudulently misrepresented its product,” Kelly DiMartino, Fort Collins city manager, said in a written statement.

Since the city has elected to rescind the parties’ contract with this decision from the jury, the court will be holding future proceedings to determine the city’s rescission remedy including how much monetary compensation the city may receive.  

“The city of Fort Collins remains committed to providing residents with an innovative seamless, user-friendly utility experience. Toward that end, the city recently announced a new collaboration with Vertex One Software to provide a redesigned customer experience,” said DiMartino. 

The city was represented by the city attorney’s office and by Case Collard, Andrea Ahn Wechter, and Maral J. Shoaei of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. 

The case, city of Fort Collins vs. Open International LLC and Open Investments LLC, was 21cv02063 filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.